2012 MLB Regular Season Running Thread

The White Sox bandwagon (knowing the crowd, probably being pulled by an El Camino) is running on fumes after the Angels sweep the South Siders.

Chicago scored five runs in the three games. Sox still have the same offensive problem they've had since Guillen was there ... if they don't hit home runs, they have no offense. Almost zero ability to manufacture runs or string a bunch of hits together.

Detroit can tie for the lead tonight.

 

Enjoyed that, Moddy.

Well, St. Louis bounced back from Saturday's meltdown to salvage two.

 

Any thoughts on who the next manager of the Cleveland Indians will be?

 

Don't worry. All is well. Tigers still have seven games left against Kansas City, a team they struggle against, especially at the end of the season.

 

Pujols first to 500 doubles by end of 12th season. Also just six behind Medwick for most doubles before age 33. In fact, his 46 doubles this year are the most since 2004. You wonder if something with the park is making doubles easier and homeruns harder. Either way, if you told me in early May that Pujols would be 2nd in the AL in extra-base hits by late September, I would have been quite skeptical, even given his track record.

Should be on track to get his 500th HR by about August of next year and his 1,500 RBI around that same time. A big season could get Albert to 1,500 runs too.

Interestingly, Paul Waner and Pujols are almost in a dead heat if Waner is corrected to a 162 game schedule.

Waner, 1926-1937, hit 481 doubles in 1792 games- out of a possible 1848.
Pujols, 2001-2012, hit 500 doubles in 1849 games- out of a possible- so far- 1932 (I may be off by a game or 2).

Pujols has hit 19 more doubles than Waner in 57 more games. Give Waner 57 more games at his rate, and he'd have about 496 doubles.

If we give Waner an extra 8 games per year- 162 vs 154- assuming he'd play all of them- he'd have 96 more games and about 27 more doubles for 508.

Waner was an absolute doubles machine- it's amazing that Pujols, an elite home run hitter, hits them at the same rate.

 

Waner was also a drinking machine. My two favorite "Big Poison" anecdotes:

1. He said he could hit better when he was drunk because "there was more of the ball to hit."

2. Casey Stengel once said of him, "He was a very graceful player. He could slide into second base without breaking the bottle on his hip."

 

It's amazing to see how few games Waner missed despite his reputation for being a heavy drinker

 

It was probably easier when most every game was during the day.

 

Wouldn't that have made it harder, given less time to shake off the exploits of the night before? Or maybe it let him get started earlier and wrap up earlier.

Which reliever was it a few years ago who pitched far better in night games than in day games because of his drinking habit? Pretty sure he pitched for the Braves, and I'm not sure he didn't also pitch for the Cubs -- which is a bit nonsensical, given the day game struggles.

 

Kyle Farnsworth

 

Farnsworth used to close Tai's Til 4.

 

The words "far better" should be used rather loosely when describing his stint with the Yankees.

The Bleacher Creatures are still traumatized from watching him trot in from the bullpen.